Zohydro, Overdose Deaths, Chronic Pain...

Let me start this blog with a statement from a recent CNN story on prescription drug abuse (http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/14/health/gupta-accidental-overdose).

In the United States, we now prescribe enough pain pills to give every man, woman and child one pill, every four hours, around the clock, for three weeks. For those of you interested, the number is 274,302,000,000.

Yup, that’s right, over 274 billion pain pills.

The number one cause of accidental death in the United States is “legally” prescribed opiates.

Now we have to deal with Zohydro? A pure, man-made form of hydrocodone.
Things are not bad enough now? Any doctor can prescribe this drug. Not necessarily a doctor that specializes in chronic pain management or pain management for the terminally ill. Your primary care physician can prescribe this highly addictive medication.

I have a major issue with that. Ask your primary care physician how many “hours” they had in medical school on mental health and addiction. I feel confident their response with startle you. Maybe thirty hours at best. Out of that thirty hours maybe four to five hours actually ‘talking’ to those that are afflicted.

I feel compassion for those that want the drug for their terminally ill loved ones. I do, I understand. I was witness to my father’s agonizing death for ten months when pancreatic cancer was ending his life. So I get it. His pain was eased with morphine which has more regulations than Zohydro and is more difficult to find its way to the street.

In this article entitled “Why long term use of opioids is not the answer,” the author explains why trying to manage pain with just opiates is not the answer (http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2013/03/long-term-opioids-answer.html)

We have an opiate epidemic particularly here in the Northeast. I understand and agree with the stance that my state of Massachusetts took recently when they tried to bar the sale of Zohydro (which was denied).

When my friend Joanne Peterson the founder of “Learn to Cope” (http://www.learn2cope.org/) tried to explain her stance on this issue she found herself personally attacked by those in favor of Zohydro. One person when talking of those with terminal illness referred to her as caring too much about “junkies.” Junkies? You mean someone’s son, someone’s daughter, mother, or father? Hey enough of the ‘ad hominem abusive.’ If you want to debate fine, stick with the facts though.

Do you think anyone grows up wanting to be an addict? I have yet to see it on a resume.

How about the well-intentioned doctor that was not taught to titrate a person down when prescribing pain killers after a surgery. ‘Here are ninety Percocet’s, take three a day for thirty days then just stop.' Really? Good luck on that. Even people with no prior addiction history can end up addicted.

Zohydro may legitimately benefit those with terminal illness. However at what price? An increase in the overdose death rate when it inevitably hits the street? Again, the number one cause of accidental death in the United States is overdose death caused by legitimately prescribed opiates. While I agree wholeheartedly agree with those that want Zohydro to be made tamper-proof I see the even bigger issue as regulation on those that prescribe.

Maybe if the physicians prescribing opiates such as Zohydro could be held personally liable for damages due to misuse then maybe they would limit the number they prescribe and the circumstances under which they do prescribe them.